KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Most days at 5:30 p.m., a tight-knit drama plays out in the auditorium of the Sama-Sama Hotel.

A handful of senior Malaysian officials stand side-by-side like awkward contestants on a game show in a room packed with television cameras and journalists from around the world.

This is the place – the ballroom level — where government officials release news to the world about missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It also has become the scene of occasional gaffes and flip-flops that have made the mystery of the jetliner’s disappearance all the more perplexing.

On Tuesday, for example, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the director general of the Department of Civil Aviation, was asked whether mechanical problems could have brought down the plane. He said he couldn’t rule out the possibility.

“We are not discounting structural damage or system failure,” he told the assembly.

Yet, three days earlier, Prime Minister Najib Razak stood in the very same spot and said the crash was caused by a “deliberate action” by someone in the cockpit.

For the home audience, the daily event offers Malaysian officials a chance to display a bit of national spirit.

Moderator Jagjit Singh, a government spokesman, tries to ensure that half the questions are asked in the Bahasa Malaysia language. Although the officials are speaking to a global audience (the conferences are widely broadcast live) and are fluent in English, they have answered those questions only in the local language. There is often no attempt at interpretation. On Wednesday a minister broke this pattern and answered a question asked in Malaysian in English.

Explaining his role in the briefings, Mr. Singh said he takes the view that “Singh is Kinng,” the title of a popular Hindi film.

Mr. Singh has the unenviable task of maintaining order, which he sometimes does with a bit of rather risky word play that he acknowledged later to The Wall Street Journal was intentional to try to inject some humor into the otherwise grim briefings.

“Don’t attempt to hijack the microphone,” he warned one reporter. He told another, “If you don’t fall off my radar, you may get to ask a question.”

More than 500 members of the press have registered with the media center, which gives them access to the proceedings. Journalists have taken over the sprawling floor of the hotel, where they have set up makeshift workstations. Television reporters give their standup reports in the hallways.

When the briefings first began at the hotel next to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, there were fewer reporters and the speakers rarely had prepared remarks. When a minister finished talking, reporters would hurl questions at the podium until he fled.

But as journalists flocked to Kuala Lumpur from the around the globe, the daily event became more organized—and more crowded. Now, to be assured a seat, journalists arrive as much as 45 minutes early. Latecomers sit in the aisles or stand in the back.

Before Prime Minister Najib Razak took the podium Saturday, members of the media who had already taken their seats were told to leave the room. They were then told to register on their way back in. Soon enough, the queue at the door morphed into a mob. The authorities gave up registering the journalists and let everyone in.

Faced with the world’s media daily, officials have sometimes given information that they soon had to contradict as the investigation developed.

One example: Last week’s confusion over whether some passengers who had checked in for the flight missed it.

In the days following the plane’s disappearance, Mr. Azharuddin, the civil aviation director, insisted that five passengers checked in but didn’t turn up at the boarding gates. He said their bags were removed from the plane in accordance with the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

But Khalid Abu Bakar, Malaysia’s police chief, later contradicted that, saying that all the passengers who had checked in boarded.

Then on Sunday, in response to a reporter’s question, Malaysia’s acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that one of the plane’s communications systems was disabled before the co-pilot signed off with Malaysian air traffic control – the last voice communication with the cockpit.

That seemed like a significant development, until the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, speaking the next day, said that information could not be verified based on the established timeline of events.

– Jake Maxwell Watts contributed to this article.

[Correction: The response about the plane's communication systems being disabled before the co-pilot signed off was originally attributed to Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's civil aviation director. It was in fact said by Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. The attribution has been corrected.]

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